


Coda to Heartbreak

by Fiercest



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: Angst and Humor, Canon Compliant, Comedy, F/M, Pre-Series, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-17
Updated: 2014-10-17
Packaged: 2018-02-21 11:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2467403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fiercest/pseuds/Fiercest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which broken hearts are mended. “[…] I need my beauty rest or the babies are gonna get terrified and crawl back into their moms’ vajayjays.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coda to Heartbreak

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly this is super disjointed because they weren't really supposed to go together. I wrote the middle one, it was too short to post on its own then the rest came later. I'm a little fond of it anyway.
> 
> Also; the standard disclaimer of my odd sense of humor applies.

An undisclosed number of years ago Mindy was a young fresh-faced junior partner ready to take on the world (on the off chance she was not on a 26 hour shift). She had very little time for boys (Men. Gwen has to remind her sometimes that she’s an adult now and should thus choose partners who are too, adult-like.) and all the time in the world to wait around after her late shift to see the cool new hysterectomy technique that barely left a scar at all.

 

One such night was spent shoulder to shoulder with one of the older, unbelievably cocky partners at her firm; Danny Castellano. She’d have picked another seat if she could but most were taken and the available ones were next to the weirdos who only took night deliveries. She’ll settle for the not-a-murderer weirdo she kind of knows.

 

And maybe her long-term boyfriend unceremoniously dumping her, getting with a younger, hotter, dumber woman and kicking her out of her apartment has something to do with her being in the situation at all.

 

Mindy sighed and watched the clean, laser-precise slices and wanted badly to use that laser to slice open Tom’s gonads and prevent any future attempts at procreation he may have had in mind.

 

“You’re here late.”

 

“Well yeah, do you not see what’s going on down there?”

 

“You don’t have better things to do?”

 

“ _Ugh Danny,_ if you don’t want to sit next to me that badly you could just stand up.”

 

“I should stand up? I was here first.”

 

“Yeah, but you’re the one with the problem dumbass.”

 

Danny frowned and looked away from the surgery and at his newest co-worker for the first time. “What the hell’s bugging you?”

 

Mindy glared at him menacingly and wagged an un-manicured finger in his face. (This was significant to her, because omigod, look how far she’d fallen). “Look Castellano, if you’re trying to ruin a perfectly nice evening for me by bringing up my shitty-ass personal life you have another thing coming.”

 

“In order to do that I’d have to know and care about your shitty-ass personal life,” he countered, frown creasing deeper into his cheeks.

 

“Oh please, are you gonna rat me out to Dr. Shulman?”

 

“Rat you out to- what?”

 

“So I’ve been sleeping in my office, big freaking whoop, I’ll find an apartment soon.”

 

“I thought you lived with your boyfriend with the weird face.”

 

“Don’t play dumb Danny, it suits you better than you think and people will notice. Tom’s a jackass.” Mindy crossed her arms, slouched low in her seat and pouted.

 

And if a tear or two gathered in the corners of her eyes that was no one’s business but her own.

 

The next morning she found a boxed air mattress sitting on her desk.

 

After everyone had gone home she bullied Danny into blowing it up for her.

 

* * *

 

 

_Present_

 

“I’m sorry I was stupid and reckless with your heart.” He whispered it to her again and again as she slept beside him. Sometimes he doesn’t even say it out loud; he just thinks it again and again. Mindy forgave him sure, but how long would it be before he did another stupid thing and she threw it all back in his face. For now she was swept up in the romance and the cuteness, but what if it all fell apart again? “I’m sorry.”

 

“Ok, Danny. Enough.”

 

He froze. Stiff as a board, he waited with baited breath for her to say some sleepy nonsense that would signify her unconsciousness.

 

“Oh no you don’t.” Mindy rolled over and glared. “We’re talking about this, this is getting ridiculous and I have like two surgeries tomorrow. Plus I need my beauty rest or the babies are gonna get terrified and crawl back into their moms’ vajayjays crying ‘aaaah the world is full of scary but beautiful ethnic monsters!’ Do you want that Danny? Do you want the babies to all be born racists?”

 

“Mindy, I-“

 

“Go on, you were saying.”

 

Danny rolled his eyes and refrained from pointing out that he’d been trying to. “I’m sorry I hurt you, I’ve been feeling guilty and-“

 

“Hold on.” Mindy pulled away from him and turned on the lamp on the bedside table closest to her so that she could see his face. “Ok, go.”

 

Now that he could see her expectant face, words failed him. How do you apologize to the most infuriating woman you know with humility?

 

“I’ve been feeling guilty and,” aaaand cue the guilt sweats, “I still can’t believe you forgave me, so I’ve been apologizing.”

 

“While I’m asleep.”

 

“While you’re asleep, yeah.”

 

“Did you ever think that maybe I’d want to hear that _out loud_?” she demanded skeptically. “Like, you never actually said you were sorry. You just said you loved me and stuff and that things had changed.”

 

“I know I’m a complete idiot. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

 

“Damnit Danny, are you serious right now?”

 

“What?”

 

“You still _haven’t_.”

 

“Haven’t what.”

 

“I’m waiting, Dummy.”

 

It dawned on him. “Oooooh… I’m sorry Min. I’m so sorry I did that to you.”

 

“Apology accepted.” She replied with a smile so big and bright that he knew trouble was brewing. “Now I’m gonna lay some truths on you Dr. Castellano.” She always seemed to warn him when these truth bombs were about to drop.

 

“I like, love you or whatever. Crippling deficiencies and all. But I’ve kind of really wanted to say this to you for as long as we were broken up. So I’m glad you brought it up.” She took a deep breath. “Ok, here it goes: When you broke up with me, ripping my heart out, squishing it then throwing it on the ground and stomping on it, I cried every night for weeks. And it wasn’t just because I loved you.

 

“You were different than any other guy I’ve ever dated. I didn’t change in any way for you. How could I? We were together like 24/7 for years, who can keep up an act that long? I never pretended to be anything I wasn’t or to like anything you liked because frankly you were annoying and a big fat jerk. So when anyone else broke my heart I always had this consolation like ‘hey, at least he didn’t see all of me and hit the road. Maybe it would have been different.’ And I thought that about _every single one of them_. Except you. I let you know me and when it was over I thought, ‘hey, no excuses this time. You are an unlovable whale.’”

 

“Hey! I never-!”

 

“My point is that this is it for me too, I’m all in and sure it’s been hard getting past your smushing my heart into a pancake but I will eventually get past it. You’re welcome by the way.”

 

“For what?” he groused, “For your impending forgiveness?” It wasn’t enough, but he also knew it wasn’t fair to ask for more.

 

“No Dumb-Dumb, the other thing.”

 

“What other thing?”

 

“I finally told you I loved you,” she held up a hand for a high five, “Go me, I’ve never waited this long before!”

 

“That makes me feel special,” Danny mumbled in embarrassment. He hadn’t actually noticed that she’d never said it. “Great, thanks.”

 

“Oh my god.” Her jaw dropped. “DID YOU NOT NOTICE?!”

 

* * *

 

 

_Several Years Prior…_

 

“What are you still doing here? Your shift ended like four hours ago,” grumbled Mindy, unhappy to share the on-call room. Danny was a sleep-talker.

 

“I’m busy. I’ve got a lot of work. I can’t go home yet.” He grunts in clipped sentences.

 

It seemed a little like he was ticking things off on his fingers so she asked him if he actually was because she couldn’t see, it was _dark_ in there.

 

Silence. And then, “You know Danny, I’ve kind of noticed that you’ve been staying late a lot. Like every day this week actually.”

 

“That’s creepy. Stop noticing me.”

 

“Ok, cool it weirdo. Don’t flatter yourself. You’re my coordinating resident, I sort of _have_ to notice you or I don’t get to talk you out of sticking with shitty graveyard shifts.”

 

“Mindy-“

 

“Fine, badgering you into doing what I want. Same diff.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, looking at him expectantly, though he couldn’t see in the dark. “So what’s up your butt Cranky-llano?”

 

“I can’t go home.”

 

“You just don’t want to go home ‘cause you’re a workaholic loser.”

 

“Are you just going to correct me this whole conversation? Because I can just go find another On-Call room.”

 

“No, I’m invested now. What’s wrong?”

 

“I left my wife. Or my wife left me. I’m not really sure who did the leaving to be honest.”

 

Mindy hissed under her breath and made a stricken face. She searched for something to say and hopefully that something wouldn’t be totally inappropriate and insensitive. “What the heck does that mean?” Swing and a miss.

 

“It means that I came home to find my wife in bed with Dr. Sneidelman.”

 

“That blows.”

 

“Yeah… I guess it really does.”

 

Danny had almost drifted off when suddenly the light was switched on and he went temporarily blind. “Gaah!” He cried out while shielding his eyes with his arms.

 

“Come on Castellano, get up.” Mindy insistently pulled at the arm covering his face. “Where are your keys?” She turned her attention to his shoulder bag and began rummaging through it.

 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” he demanded, voice rising an octave.

 

“I’m gonna take you home. We’re going to burn the sheets your hoebag wife banged that loser on, as well as any and all of her crap that’s not worth selling off. You’re also going to yell about it a lot. You’re good at that, it should be easy.”

 

“For what?”

 

“Closure, Dummy.” She replied fondly.

 

He didn’t know how- he blamed it on his all-encompassing depression –but she had succeeded in getting him through the front door of his and Christina’s shared apartment.

 

“Which way’s the bedroom?” She knew exactly how to tiptoe around him in this moment. If there was one thing that Mindy knew how to do, it was deal with breakups. She’d had quite a bit of practice. She knew to distance him as much as she possibly could from the situation and the ‘scene of the crime’. At least for the time being.

 

He gestured to the hallway on the left and threw himself down onto the couch.

 

When she returned to the living room, sheets in arm, he was sitting with his elbows propped on his knees and his head in his hands. “Stop moping loser, we’re exorcising that shit.”

 

“How is that different than what I usually do? That’s how I’ve gotten so buff lately.” He smirked and kind of flexed for her, which made her think the cocky tool might actually get past this, eventually.

 

“No, like the Exorcist. The movie. But with your relationship.”

 

She stuffed it into his stainless steel trashcan, the kind that you step on and the lid lifts. “Got any pictures of the hoe?”

 

He reluctantly pointed to a bookshelf filled with photo albums. She skipped over the ones from his childhood, teenage years and college (but not before leaving herself a mental note to peruse them for possible embarrassments later). Mindy grabbed some of the more recent stuff, all impeccably staged and shot by professionals, and flipped through them, occasionally tearing pages out and stuffing them into the trash.

 

After a moment of thought she shuffled back into the bedroom and returned once again with an armful of clothes. It turned out they didn’t all fit so she settled for all of Christina’s underwear.

 

A block of knives sat on the kitchen island, she pulled out the biggest one that wasn’t a meat cleaver and delicately placed it in her defacto-boss’s hand with a sage nod of encouragement. “It’s gonna be ok. You know what to do.”

 

Danny’s eyes widened like a deer caught in front of a runaway train whose hoofs had been superglued to the train tracks. “What the hell do you want me to do with this?”

 

Mindy raised her perfectly groomed eyebrow and looked at him like he was stupid. “Stab the memories,” she placed a hand delicately on her heart. “Exorcise those demons.”

 

Still looking stupid.

“Stab the goddamn sheets and pictures, you’ll feel better.”

 

He did, perfunctorily. He felt very stupid.

 

Mindy rolled her eyes. “Where do you keep your matches?”

 

 He pulled a lighter out of his pocket, automatically submitting himself to a tirade about how he should know better than to commit suicide by lung plaque buildup.

 

Finally she handed him his wedding photo, “Light it up Castellano, it’ll make you feel better.” He did, then he dropped it into the trash been. The rest of the photos caught fire next, then the underwear, lacy and small, then the sheets.

 

They stood side-by-side watching his marriage burn until there were no faces in the photographs to be seen, only soot and the smell of plastic burning.

 

“So how do I put this out?”

 

Then the fire alarm came on.

**Author's Note:**

> My askbox on tumblr is always open for requests! I'm thinking of starting a compilation.
> 
> You can message me here: 
> 
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/fiercy


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